American troops in the Middle East may have been looking forward to turkey and football to celebrate Thanksgiving, but Iran-backed militia groups had other thoughts in mind.

U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria were attacked at least four times with mortars and armed drones on Thanksgiving Day, according to Sky News Arabia. The attacks in Iraq reported involved suicide drones launched at the Ain al-Asad air base west of Baghdad:

U.S. Forces at Al-Asad Airbase in Western Iraq have been Attacked by Drones and Mortars within the last hour in Coordination with what appears to have also been a Ground Assault on the Fence around the Base, in which Iranian-Backed Forces attempted to Storm the Base using… pic.twitter.com/ZbXixIZ0TM

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) November 23, 2023

There was also a report of a Thanksgiving Day attack at the Harir base near Erbil Airport in northern Iraq where U.S. troops are stationed:

Iran backed militia says it is targeting American base in Erbil, northern Iraq. https://t.co/SqOm4DXnJ3

— Jonathan Schanzer (@JSchanzer) November 23, 2023

The base was attacked last week as well, with the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a network of shadow Iraqi militia groups backed by Iran and affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, claiming responsibility for the suicide drone attacks.

CBS News reported that several U.S. troops were wounded in a Tuesday attack on the Al-Asad Airbase:

Several U.S. troops were wounded on Tuesday in an attack on the Al-Asad Airbase in Iraq. The Pentagon says this was the first time in recent weeks that U.S. troops were targeted with a “close-range ballistic missile.” pic.twitter.com/pVrycvYJfv

— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) November 22, 2023

The U.S. military reportedly launched a deadly strike on the Iranian-backed militants in retaliation for that missile attack.

In late October, President Biden warned Iran’s supreme leader of a response at a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the White House.

“My warning to the Ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond. And he should be prepared.”

But these attacks are nothing new under President Biden.

Voice of America cited two U.S. defense officials to report last week that Iranian-backed proxies “have attacked U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria at least 150 times since President Joe Biden took office.”

More than a third of those attacks have occurred after the barbaric attack on Israel by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas — and U.S. troops are suffering casualties.

“Most of the attacks since October 17 were disrupted by the U.S. military or failed to reach their targets, causing no casualties or damage to infrastructure, according to the military,” VOA reported. “But a handful of attacks have left more than 60 U.S. military personnel with injuries, ranging from shrapnel wounds to perforated eardrums and traumatic brain injuries. Officials say all of the injured have returned to duty.”

There was a death at al-Asad Air Base, when a U.S. contractor suffered a cardiac episode and died while sheltering in place during a false alarm for an air attack.

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Tom Tillison

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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.

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